This paper describes the development, translation, and early evaluation of the Arabic Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (AR-PIADS), an outcome measure instrument for the subjective impact of Assistive Technology on a person with a disabilities' quality of life. Developing the AR = PIADS instrument involved forward and backward translation by two independent teams of bilingual, Arabic-English speakers (n = 5) and a quality and usability review by a panel of people with disabilities (n = 18). The emergent version was evaluated with a group of experienced Arabic-speaking Assistive Technology users (n = 67) for its psychometric properties. Initial results demonstrate a favorable comparison for 16 of the 26 questionnaire items with scores recorded for the original, English language version. Internal consistency, measured using Cronbach's alpha, yielded a range of 0.97-0.99 for AR-PIADS while the new instrument's reliability was assessed using an intraclass correlation coefficient resulting in scores within the range of 0.86-0.97 for the overall instrument. Despite these positive results however, the translation process did highlight a number of challenges with language and cultural interpretation of the translated instrument. This suggests that further work is warranted to explore its utility in service provision.

Children’s play in Irish schoolyards remains neglected in educational policies and practices despite government commitments to inclusive schools and children’s rights. There is a dearth of research on children’s perspectives of play, criticisms of ‘at risk’ discourses underpinning concerns for certain children’s play rights, and studies identifying exclusion within Irish schoolyards, particularly for children with minoritized identities. This inquiry informed by the theory of practice architectures used walking interviews to explore with twenty-three children their play practices in two Irish primary schools identified as disadvantaged. Analysis of the interviews generated three themes: (1) the state of play – cracks with(in) the routines of the schoolyard, (2) playing along and with(in) this shared space and (3) the hard yard. This inquiry contributes to understandings of children’s play with(in) Irish schoolyards, as socially situated practices with contrasting representations of play as habitual and emerging. Play was central to children’s social lives, identities, and friendships and interrelated with diverse constraints, exclusionary practices, and the (re)production of the ‘hard yard’. While mattering most children’s experiences of significant constraints and inequities, this inquiry also highlighted the transformative possibilities generated within play to create shared possibilities for individual and collective flourishing. 

Background

Research has identified diverse constraints to the adoption of school-based occupational therapy approaches and a lack of attention to addressing the barriers to children’s play opportunities. Critical contextualised research is advocated to inform practice possibilities.

Aims/Objectives

This inquiry aimed to explore with occupational therapists their existing practices in Irish schoolyards to generate practice possibilities concerned with play, as an issue of occupational justice.

Materials and Methods

Using the theory of practice architectures, six occupational therapists from diverse sites of practice participated in the first phase of a critical action research process using dialogical focus group and occupational mapping methods.

Results

Three themes were generated (1) Existing practices as situated (2) (Re)mattering play and practices as occupations and (3) Practice possibilities – ‘Finding the play’ between responsiveness and responsibilities. A further interrelated dimension was how the research methods provided mechanisms of raising consciousness.

Conclusions, and Significance

Alongside constructing knowledges on existing practices in an Irish context, this inquiry contributes to understandings of practices as socially embedded generative processes of ‘finding the play’, highlighting ethical responsibilities to make visible inequities reproduced in habitual practices and engage in relationships of solidarity to (re)construct alternative shared practices.

Play for plays sake emphasises the significance of how children characterise play opposed to any secondary purposes or benefits it may generate. The concept of play value draws attention to how the space in which children play proffers the experiences that children want. Increasingly, digital play experiences are emerging as spaces for play. This inquiry aims to examine the play value of digital spaces, specifically how play is afforded by the digital space from the perspective of children. Eight children aged 11 years old participated in seven focus groups, creating comic strips which were used to elicit discussions. Focus group analysis generated three themes with associated sub-themes which were collectively explained by the overarching theme of endless possibilities in play in digital spaces. This study provides a new understanding of how digital spaces affords play value from the child's perspective.

Background: Everyday lives of adolescents reflects a pattern and balance of occupations across the awake-sleep continuum. Despite ongoing discussions regarding overconsumption, play in digital spaces is an occupation of choice for many adolescents.Aim: To explore and identify how the meaning of playing video games is situated in adolescents’ everyday life.Material and Method: Five participants aged 16–17 years were recruited. Data was generated through interviews and encounters using recorded clips of their play in digital spaces. Narrative analysis was utilised to explore the stories of adolescent’s digital play in everyday life.Results: The overall plot of ‘bridging the divide’ represents and symbolises how play in the digital space is integrated in adolescents’ everyday life as they negotiate and balance the habits and routines of everyday life. Four storylines help demonstrate the stories told.Conclusion: Playing in digital spaces enabled the participants to be part of an ongoing story where meaning could be negotiated and created. Play was interwoven in the complexity of routines reflecting the importance of examining the integrated whole of adolescents’ everyday life.Significance: These findings are significant in shifting current assumptions and discourses of how digital play is situated in everyday life.

Irish Traveller children, an ethnic indigenous minoritized community in Ireland are identified in Ireland’s play policy as at higher risk of exclusion from realising their right to play, alongside a reported absence of research on indigenous children’s play. This scoping review aimed to identify the breadth and scope of available research on representations of Irish Traveller children’s play and the factors influencing play opportunities. Applying the updated Joanna Briggs Institute methodological guidance, a systematic search was completed of nine databases. Thirty-five peer reviewed studies met the inclusion criteria, descriptive study information was charted and summarised and enabling and restricting factors influencing Irish Traveller children’s play were identified using an existing conceptual model. The scoping review findings revealed a limited focus within research on Irish Traveller children’s play. Included studies however, provided evidence of; the importance of feeling a sense of belonging and safety to enable Irish Traveller children’s access to preferred play opportunities, involving real life activities, physical play outdoors and play with others; Irish Traveller parents value and facilitation of play; and the significant restricting influence of racism on Irish Traveller children’s play .Limited knowledge on Irish Traveller children’s own perspectives on play and the need to address racism as a restricting influence on play in school and community environments are considered in relation to practice and further research. Discourses representing Irish Traveller children as marginalised, were problematized as reflective of culturist assumptions, and a shift towards understanding the situated nature of Irish Traveller children’s play, as a capability is proposed.

Background:

Digital spaces are rapidly emerging as a space for children to engage in autotelic play.

Aim:

To explore and describe children’s experiences of choice-making in their play in digital spaces from the perspective of children themselves.

Methods:

Focus groups were conducted with a total of eight children aged six years of age within their school, in a large city in Ireland. A Mosaic Approach with drawing, cutting, and colouring in was used to elicit the children’s voices to ensure their active engagement throughout the data collection. Data was analyzed using focus group analysis.

Results:

Data analysis revealed three main themes; children enjoy the ability to make choices in their play, that they are often constrained in their ability to make choices, and that they negotiate ways in which they can select options for play in digital spaces.

Conclusions:

Findings indicate that children are agentic individuals who are capable of making decisions in their play in digital spaces. This knowledge provides implications for Occupational Therapists to enhance play as an occupation in digital spaces.